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Author: Ashok Chowgule
Publication: Hindu Vivek Kendra
Date:
India Today is the largest circulating weekly English magazine that is published in India that deals with the socio-political issues relating to current affairs. The title of the cover story in its August 14, 2006, issue is: "Muslim Education Levels: A Shocking Divide". The magazine says that it has done an analysis of the data compiled in the census taken in 2001. The central conclucions that the magazine arrives at is: "The study irrefutably establishes that, on an average, Muslim men and women are far less educationally accomplished than their non-Muslim counterparts." The magazine has been in existence for the last 31 years, and that it has stumbled only now on information that has already been known to so many others is a poor reflection on the people managing it.
The biggest lacuna in the analysis is that the authors have not done the study for the other major religious minority, namely the Christians. But then to have done it would have meant that the editors would have to revise the pre-determined primary reason that the magazine gives for the state of education affairs of the Muslims, namely: "The lessons are clear. Our educational institutions, governments and social systems have failed to create an effective, inclusive environment that may have influenced most Muslim parents to educationally empower their children in the way the rest of the country has."
Perhaps the magazine can inform its readers how the educational institutions, governments and social systems succeeded with the non-Muslims, while they have failed with the Muslims. It is hoped that the magazine is not implying that there was a deliberate plan to ensure that the Muslims are actively discriminated against when it comes to education. If so, then the magazine should seriously question the various politicians, who have been ruling the country all these years, starting from 1947, the year of our independence, for their miserable failure. It would also have to seriously question the intellectuals in our country for sitting back and doing nothing to rectify the failure of the polticians.
The magazine follows up the above two sentences with the following: "Muslim leaders and opinion makers are also to blame for not influencing the community enough to send and, more importantly, keep their children in regular schools and colleges."
Does this mean that leaders and opinion makers of other communities influenced members of their communities to send, and more importantly, keep their children in regular schools and colleges? Is this not a compelling condemnation of the leaders and the opinion makers of the Muslim community? And the same leaders and opinion makers of the Muslim community are forever adversely commenting about the state of affairs of India in general. So, how come their voices are muted when it comes to their own community?
Anyway, there is a major disconnect between the first two sentences, where the secular institutions are blamed, and the third sentence where the communal leadership is blamed. Given the failure of the secular institutions, as alleged by the magazine, surely there is very little the communal leadership could have done. If there is no effective, inclusive environment, even if the communal leadership had made tremendous effort to influence the community to send and, more importantly, keep their children in regular schools and colleges, they would have certainly failed. The Muslim students would find the environment prejudicial to their interests and so would drop out anyway. The magazine should make up its mind and state where the real problem lies. Otherwise, we would just be chasing mirages and make the real problem even worse.
And then the magazine warns its reader as follows: "The signs are ominous because if these inequalities persist in the years ahead, a large section of Muslims will be denied a place in India's educated work-force. More critically, a majority of unemployed, uneducated youth would be in urban areas, creating scope for social and communal tensions."
So it is the people at large that have to suffer for a problem that is not of their making!
In the recent past, I thought the magazine had reached the nadir in terms of intellectual analysis. I now find that it has started to dig further with great vigour. The magazine seems to specialize in resorting to the use of the English language as a substitute for reasoned analysis. But then, this malady has affected the intellectual class in India quite strongly for a long time.
As per the headline of the cover story, the magazine proclaims that it is shocked to find the divide. In fact, its readers should be shocked that it has found the situation shocking. It does not need an analysis of the census data to know what is happening at the ground level. Moreover, in India, the secularists (in which class the magazine makes desperate efforts to be in) have been continually saying that the social, educational and economic status of the Muslims has been very poor. In fact, these same secularists were quite specifically saying that there is a deliberate programme to keep the Muslims in the sorry state of affairs, often implying that it is the fault of the Hindus who are the majority. They have been saying that it is the enlightened interest of the Hindus that the Muslims should not be backward, and that it is the responsibility of the Hindus that the Muslims should be snatched from the clutches of their leaders and opinion makers!
An irony in the article is the following statement: "The saving grace seemed to be Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh, where the literacy ratios of the Muslim males and females were marginally better than those of non-Muslims." Now, this magazine, along with much of the mainstream English media, has been saying, ad nauseum, that the Muslims in Gujarat are in a state of discontentment, and has blamed the votaries of Hindutva for it. Its coverage of the post-Godhra riots has contributed, in no small way, to creating a sense of resentment in the Muslims all over India. And it even today subtly justifies the Islamic terrorism in terms of these post-Godhra riots. If it were true to even a modicum of professionalism then it should stop the canard that it has indulged in, and continues to do so. But then this is too much to expect of a magazine so steeped in an agenda where truth has little role to play.
Another irony is the findings with respect to Kerala and West Bengal, where the state of affairs with respect to Muslims is worse than the national average. In both these states, various political parties that assiduously court Muslim votes at the time of elections are defined as secular by the magazine. Moreover, the magazine carries on the fiction that the Marxists in West Bengal are 'ideologically more attuned than others to the necessity of modern education, and are against gender discrimination.'
A proper analysis of the state of affairs of education levels of Muslims should also include an international comparison. It is no state secret that the literacy levels of Muslims in Pakistan and Bangladesh are no better than the Muslims in India. One does not hear of institutes of excellence in secular education, like the IITs and the IIMs in India, in either of these countries. The situation in most other Islamic countries is no different.
Then there is the situation of the education of Muslims in countries like the UK and the USA. According to data collected by the government in the UK, almost a third (31 per cent) of Muslims of working age in Great Britain had no qualifications - the highest proportion for any religious group group -- as compared to 16% among Christians and 13% among Hindus. The Muslims are also least likely to have degrees (or equivalent qualifications).
In an article "Education and the American family" (The News International, May 29, 2000), Dr. Manzur Ejaz while giving details and information of the education system in the USA, stated that there are glaring discrepancies in educational achievements between the people from Pakistan and India. He says that the education level of Pakistani immigrant youth is much less as compared with their Indian counterparts, despite having the same setting in the US.
Is the magazine then implying that in the Islamic countries, and in the West, the educational institutions, governments and social systems have failed to create an effective, inclusive environment that may have influenced most Muslim parents to educationally empower their children? Or is it that Muslim leaders and opinion makers are to blame for not influencing the community enough to send and, more importantly, keep their children in regular schools and colleges?
The magazine would like to keep its eyes and mind closed to what has happened in the bomb attack in Mumbai. Many of those arrested for the crime are well educated, and hold professional degrees. Yet, they have decided to indulge in the acts of wanton terrorism. As the New York Times (August 9, 2006) noted: "(The bomb attacks) also underscored a gathering threat for India: a small but increasingly deadly cadre of young and often educated Indian Muslims who are being drawn directly into terrorist operations." So, even if the Muslim community is educated, the problem to the society that the magazine has stated that will be caused by lack of education will still persist. Is it not time to look at the real reason for the cause of Islamic terrorism?
Things are no different in other parts of the world. Osama bin Laden is no uneducated village bum. Twenty-four terrorist suspects being held last night over an alleged plot to blow up as many as 10 transatlantic jets include middle-class, well-educated young men born in Britain.
Even as the magazine narrated statistics to confirm what everyone else already knew, it has not made even a small effort to tell its readers what the solutions can be. But then this is something that the intellectuals in India seem to be incapable to doing. Because if they did they would find that they are very much part of the problem, and the situation would be most uncomfortable for them. The reason why India does not seem to be able to find enduring solutions to its problems has nothing to do with the politicians, but with those who occupy the intellectual space. I have often wondered if they have as much interest in keeping the Muslims in a state of discontentment as those who project themselves as protectors and benefactors of the Muslims.
But a solution needs to be found. To do this, we will have to throw the analysis made by the magazine in the dust-bin. It is necessary to understand that state and private institutes offer secular education, and that everyone has an opportunity to take advantage of it. If a person chooses not to do so, no one can be blamed except the person himself. To an extent the community leadership can play a role, as has happened with many communities in India.
It is unfortunate that the Muslim community leaders in India have often played a negative role in guiding the Muslims in the right direction. In fact, there is a strong suspicion that they are deliberately keeping the community in a state of discontent, since only in such an environment will the members seek to have a communal leader. At the same time, these leaders continuously harangue the state to give benefits in terms of communal issues - like subsidy for Haj pilgrimage, Urdu teachers, etc. But they rarely will cajole the community members to get themselves educated.
But while education is an important first step, it alone is not enough, as has been stated above. How this education is used is equally significant. And here the role of the secular community, belonging to both Muslim and non-Muslim elements, is much more important than the religious and political leaders amongst the Muslims. It is these secularists that need to stand up and expose any leader who projects an obscurantist agenda, and not rationalize it. The type of story that India Today has presented makes one pessimistic whether this is going to happen in the near future.
An enduring solution will only be found when there is a sound and truthful analysis. When the keys to the house are lost in an area where it is dark, one will surely not find them under a street light.
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